1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoelectric conductive motherboard for electronic modules and a photoelectric modular system.
2. Description of Related Art
Most devices and tools today contain electrical components. Even toys are becoming increasingly interactive with more and more electronic parts. Modern appliances, cars, and even furniture can contain electronic components. Both cell phones and computers have become necessities in most every household.
Although these devices benefit our society, they cause a significant problem: e-waste. Three million tons of e-waste is generated each year in the U.S. Landfills now contain 70-80% electronics, much of which contains hazardous materials such as lead, nickel, cadmium and mercury. Since e-waste also contains valuable elements, gold, copper, silver, palladium and platinum, discarded consumer electronics are not only a significant source of pollution, they are also a waste of our natural resources. Less than 20% of electronics are recycled. It has been estimated that the amount of e-waste being generated may increase by up to 500% over the next decade.
This situation is exacerbated by the trend of adding even more functions to electronics. The heart of all of these devices is the printed circuit board (PCB). Multiple tracks interconnect various electronic components that have been permanently positioned on the board using tin-containing and possibly leaded solder. Furthermore, because many devices require more than one PCB, multiple cables and connectors are required to interconnect the PCB's. As the number of connections increases, it becomes necessary to include components whose sole purpose is to encode, transmit and decode various types of information. Increasing the amount of hardware and data that must be processed, eventually slows the operation of the device. Manufacturers have responded by increasing speed, which requires additional energy, larger and more powerful batteries, and so on. This escalates the e-waste.
Efficiently functioning electronics require that components are securely and permanently fastened to the PCB, preventing the incursion of dust, dirt, and moisture, all of which interfere with electrical signals, by affecting the connections. The very nature of the electronics is to continuously advance, with improved components and increased functions. This makes it desirable for the consumer to discard the old electronics rather than repair or upgrade, even if only one of the components is faulty or out of date.
What is required is a way of integrating components that allows upgrading or replacement of faulty parts without the need for special instruments or tools. This requires a system that allows interconnection of various components and transmission of large amounts of information without dedicated wires and channels, multiple connectors, and tracks, allowing the consumer to move and change components at will. Such a system would decrease pollution, production costs and wasting of environmental resources while simultaneously decreasing cost and increasing convenience to the consumer. Decreasing wires and tracks would reduce inductive properties, giving such a device an increased level of resistance to natural and artificially generated electromagnetic shock fields.
The opinion of engineers today seems to be that such a thing cannot be done. According to one, “ . . . to make all the integrated circuits properly talk to each other while dealing with the electromagnetic conductance issues; metal cages around components, thousands of signal paths of multiple layers of the PCB, packing signal lines between power planes, running signal lines in zigzags to produce equidistant signal paths . . . ” is not feasible. Another has stated, “A CPU needs to be incredibly reliant on connections (that's why they are soldered in). We do live in a world of millions of never going to happens . . . most of these things never happen because of the fact that they can't be done.”
Many companies and research institutions are searching for a technology that allows the free interchange of components, reduces production costs, reduces waste, while increasing the speeds, power, and efficiency of electrical devices.
Patents have been granted on conductive glass and transmission of data by light energy. Motorola and Google are working on a cooperative project attempting to build a modular phone. No one has come up with a system that addresses the above noted issues. The present invention does.